How to Train Your Abs Without Doing a Single Crunch

Are you sick and tired of doing crunches? Probably. Doing hundreds of crunches all time feels endless and gets very boring. If you don't enjoy your ab workout, you're not going to want to do it at all. Doing other ab exercises that don't involve crunches will make your workout go by faster because it will be more interesting, and it will also better strengthen your abs than simply doing crunches alone.

Hanging leg raises

Hanging leg raises are an excellent core workout. They really challenge your entire mid section and have a wide range of motion. To do this exercise you will need a pull-up bar.

Step 1. Grip the bar firmly and hang from it with your elbows at a 90-degree angle. The goal here is to be slightly holding yourself up and not just letting all your weight fall to the floor.

Step 2. Bend your knees and raise your legs up towards your chest. Try to bring your legs all the way up to your chest. If you don't raise them high enough, you won't be using your abs but your hips instead.

Step 3. Repeat the action of raising your legs to your chest until fatigue. Try to vary it up little by swiveling your hips and raising your legs in different directions towards your body.

Another great thing about hanging leg raises is that they also work your arms, shoulders and back. So you are actually hitting four areas of your body with one exercise.

Isometrics

Isometric exercises are also a great way to strengthen your abs without doing any crunches or sit-ups. An isometric exercise is performed y holding a muscle in a certain position for any amount of time. It's kind of like he opposite of lifting weights, or doing most other exercises that require motion. All you have to do to perform isometrics is hold still, literally.

Lie flat on your back with your arms to your side and legs stretched out. Raise your feet about 6 - 8 inches off the ground. Hold this position for as long as you possibly can. Unless you have done this many times before, you will probably start to feel your abs burn after about 30 seconds. Try to hold it for one minute. Then rest for a minute, and repeat the process 3 - 5 times.

If you're interested in more ways you can train your abs and other muscles using isometrics, you should consider looking into yoga. Yoga is built entirely around isometric exercise.